Also, they stole documents on EU negotiations with Ukraine and Belarus. According to Spiegel, six documents were stolen in total.

Last week, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on a hacker attack on the German government's network. According to the media, the hackers intended to get access to the documents of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country; they penetrated the network of the Federal Academy of Public Administration with the help of Spy Software which offered the employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the possibility of distance training. As a result of the attack, computers of at least 17 employees of the office were infected.

At the end of February, Focus magazine, with reference to a source in the defense industry, reported that the Art28 hacker group, also known as Fancy Bear (a group allegedly controlled by the Russian authorities), had attacked the German foreign ministry. According to the media, the attack was carried out in December last year with the help of malicious software. The attackers, as the Focus wrote, managed to steal "valuable data". According to the newspaper's source, the attack could take place throughout the year.

According to DPA, the hackers then managed to penetrate the data transmission network of the Federal Administration Berlin-Bonn. From December 2017, the Federal Office for Information Security and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution are investigating the attack.